> I can tell you that the curve is defiantly skewed with the numbers of inexperienced beeks.

I am guessing you meant definitely skewed. But statisticians will tell you that increasing the numbers doesn't make a survey more accurate. For example, it doesn't matter whether I ask 100 or 1 million Republicans who they will vote for, that still won't tell me anything about who Democrats will vote for. And it doesn't really pay to ask non-voters, as they aren't going to vote anyway. What you want is a _representative sample_ that adjusts for or eliminates skew.

Regarding beekeepers and surveys, the BeeInformed survey breaks the information into categories, including scale of operation, treatment vs no treatment, etc. We already know that small holders have 99% of the country's hives, so their numbers in surveys will always be higher than commercial beekeepers. Commercial beekeepers tend to under participate in surveys, too. They may be too busy or even unwilling to share information that could benefit competitors. 

But if you have even 50 or so commercial beekeepers reporting, I think you will get a good picture of what they do. They tend to be more similar in their approach in any case, because they share information between themselves and gravitate toward what works, because they have to, to survive. Small holders are much more liable to try new things, things that do & don't work, to experiment or to keep repeating the same mistakes. 

Finally, people like Randy Oliver, Larry Connor, etc. have done a terrific job writing about the various techniques used by large and small operators. The information is available, though you may have to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.

PLB

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